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Chris Brown Needs to Stand Up, Not "Crawl"
The Big Music Machine is gearing up for the December 8 release of Chris Brown's new album, "Graffiti." A second single, "Crawl," was released last Friday with a sparkly new video to match. In it, Brown is supersensitive as he sings, "Let's crawl back to love." It's the perfect marketing campaign intended to divert us from one inescapable truth: Chris Brown is a loser.
People do change, though. It takes the inner strength of Hercules and the willingness to come totally clean with yourself, but it can happen. Maybe Chris Brown has that desire. So far, all of his public responses about his actions have made me think otherwise. Because I care, I offer this Hall of Shame for Chris Brown as a reality check - three musicians whose talent became overshadowed by their unchecked tempers and treatment of women. Chris Brown has to do more than sing about crawling if he wants to walk toward some redemption.
Our Favorite Magicians EVER
This week the 2009 World Magic Awards aired on MTV, and while prestidigitation sometimes gets a bad rap (OK, we admit Doug Henning did not do much for the industry's hip factor), in our minds, the thrill of illusion doesn't get the credit it deserves.
We saw David Copperfield perform in the '80s. He made a motorcycle, with him on it, disappear from the stage and reappear in the middle of the theater on a platform that covered a few rows of seats about 20 feet away from us. Now we get that there was probably a stunt double onstage, but there was NO accounting for the bike. People nearby were touching it and the chairs below it. It was not a hologram or mirror trick. There was no trap door in the floor and nothing suspended from the ceiling - just a 650-pound chopper carrying the Master of Illusion himself. It blew our minds.
To us, all the current-day spellbinders owe a huge debt of gratitude to Copperfield. And while many of the performers' presentations can be a bit cheesy, we are big fans of the art. Here's our list of our favorite magicians EVER!
Retro Minute: November 23, 1984
Doug Flutie throws the Hail Mary Pass. Which "Time Bandits" star is 33? Shawn's wakin' up the memories...
Is Them Crooked Vultures in the World?
Today, Them Crooked Vultures steps into the supergroup spotlight. The trio - composed of Foo Fighters' Dave Grohl, Led Zeppelin's John Paul Jones, and Queens of the Stone Age's Josh Homme -just released their self-titled debut, and it's rich with heavy Zeppelin-esque grooves and '70s headbanging swagger.
It's also an album that makes you realize how little music breathes these days. There's something about dudes playing in a room together - LOUDLY - that pleases the senses the way no amount of Pro Tools cut-and-pasting can achieve. Show me the plug-in that combines the sound of Zep and Nirvana's rhythm section into one fat Wall of Sound.
This cross-generational teaming (Grohl was born the same month and year as Led Zeppelin's debut album release) also refutes the adage that a band is greater than the sum of its parts. Supergroups are a dicey proposition to be sure: multiple monster egos are never meant to share the same oxygen for long. Still, when they come together for the love of a shared musical vision - as opposed to the matchmaking of a manager hungry for a commission -the results are righteous.
Here are some supergroups that represent the best and worst of the bunch.
Bitter Celebrity Custody Battles
Sandra Bullock and Jesse James have been splashed all over the news lately. It seems that Jesse's ex-wife, Janine Lindemulder, is battling him for custody of their daughter, Sunny. Now that Janine's out of the slammer for tax evasion, the former adult film star wants her kid back. And she's dragging "The Proposal" actress into the fight. Jesse is trying to keep Sandy out of it, but with such a high-profile star, that's not always easy to do.
Sadly, as in many of these disputes, it's the children who suffer. But this is not the first time celebrity custody fights have made headlines. Here are a few other knock-down, drag-out battles over the kids of the stars.
